The vast majority of golf-based country clubs charge an upfront fee to join and ongoing monthly dues which include use of the golf course and driving range. Public golf courses and driving ranges typically operate on a “pay as you play” model. They all rely on customer volume for profitability. The timing of customer volume is important. During times of the day when additional products and/or services are more likely to be consumed, customer volume is potentially more profitable. These times are typically lunchtimes and after 4 pm when there is a potential for additional revenue from the sale of food and beverages for example. Golf courses occupy large real estate footprints that often remain unused for the important parts of the day mentioned above.
The number of U.S. golfers has dropped 24 percent since 2002, losing over a million players in 2013 alone (source: “How Golf got Stuck in The Rough,” Bloomberg Business Week, Jun. 23-29, 2014 at pp. 23-24). One of the reasons for the decreased popularity of golf is because of the time it takes to play an 18-hole golf course (approximately four hours) and the lack of mass social interaction. The decreasing in popularity of the game of golf is a problem that remains largely unsolved. As a result, in 2013 alone, almost 160 golf courses were shut down while only 14 new courses were opened (see Id.).
Driving ranges are an alternative to a round of golf, offering the opportunity to reduce the time spent on the activity. However, driving ranges present an inferior alternative to the game of golf. Specifically, while players can use driving ranges at any time of the day and there is no specific time-commitment, these facilities typically do not offer the environment of a competitive game and do not offer mass social interaction. Rather, a driving range is a facility where players practice golf-swing techniques. Although certain driving ranges provide targets on the range for practicing hitting at a designated target, there is typically not an installed score keeping system.
Certain driving ranges employ the use of radio frequency identification tags inside golf balls and associated antennas embedded within targets (RFID Systems). These systems track scores and enable players to compete with one another. These facilities often include integral bars and restaurants. They also require significant capital investments in real estate and are destinations in themselves, requiring complex infrastructure and specially manufactured golf balls. They are frequented by significant numbers of non or occasional golfers and do not directly facilitate in retaining existing golfers or encouraging new golfers for country clubs, golf courses or driving ranges. The disadvantage of these facilities is that they are purposely built infrastructures of their own, are not portable and hence cannot solve the footfall problems discussed above with respect to the traditional golf clubs.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel golf-related leisure activity system offering an enhanced golf-related experience while offering additional revenue potential for existing golf course, country club and driving range operators without any significant new capital investment. The present invention has also been designed to have a duration of play similar to that of other leisure activities: up to two hours. The set up and use of the preferred embodiment is designed to be efficient with most of the technology integral to the target and little or no infrastructure impeding the player's experience when checking in and hitting. In particular, the golf balls are intended to be standard other than being manufactured in specific colors. In this regard, it is an object of the present invention to re-create the experience of playing golf on a course or at a driving range with no additional equipment required by the players.